<p>Three Expedition 43 crew members are all set to return to Earth on Thursday after their 199-day stay on the International Space Station (ISS).<br /><br /></p>.<p>Commander Terry Virts and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti will board the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft for landing in Kazakhstan at 7.13 p.m. (India time). <br /><br />Virts had ceremoniously handed over control of the ISS to veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.<br /><br />Originally scheduled for May 13, the mission was extended for one month because of a Russian rocket failure in April.<br /><br />European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Cristoforetti has set a new space record.<br />She moved past NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who logged 195 days aloft in 2006-07, to become the world's most experienced female astronaut.<br /><br />The male record for a single flight, set by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov during a stay aboard the Mir space station in 1994-95, stands at 438 days, CBCnews.com reported.<br /><br />Expedition 44 commander Padalka, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko plan to spend a full year in space to help researchers learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness and exposure to space radiation.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Three Expedition 43 crew members are all set to return to Earth on Thursday after their 199-day stay on the International Space Station (ISS).<br /><br /></p>.<p>Commander Terry Virts and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti will board the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft for landing in Kazakhstan at 7.13 p.m. (India time). <br /><br />Virts had ceremoniously handed over control of the ISS to veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.<br /><br />Originally scheduled for May 13, the mission was extended for one month because of a Russian rocket failure in April.<br /><br />European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Cristoforetti has set a new space record.<br />She moved past NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who logged 195 days aloft in 2006-07, to become the world's most experienced female astronaut.<br /><br />The male record for a single flight, set by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov during a stay aboard the Mir space station in 1994-95, stands at 438 days, CBCnews.com reported.<br /><br />Expedition 44 commander Padalka, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko plan to spend a full year in space to help researchers learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness and exposure to space radiation.<br /><br /></p>